One of my passions (other than reading and blogging of course) is gaming. I admit that I do not play as much as I used to and in the last few years I barely can call myself a gamer at all! But the passion is still there and «The Comic Book Story of Video Games» sounded very appealing to me!
A complete, illustrated history of video games–highlighting the machines, games, and people who have made gaming a worldwide, billion dollar industry/artform–told in a graphic novel format.
Author Jonathan Hennessey and illustrator Jack McGowan present the first full-color, chronological origin story for this hugely successful, omnipresent artform and business. Hennessey provides readers with everything they need to know about video games–from their early beginnings during World War II to the emergence of arcade games in the 1970s to the rise of Nintendo to today’s app-based games like Angry Birds and Pokemon Go. Hennessey and McGowan also analyze the evolution of gaming as an artform and its impact on society. Each chapter features spotlights on major players in the development of games and gaming that contains everything that gamers and non-gamers alike need to understand and appreciate this incredible phenomenon.
Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Now that you all know my secret passion of video gaming, let’s see if this comic book actually lived up to my expectations!
It is really what it says it is – a history of the electronic gaming evolution. So if you, just like me, wanted to see different video games released in different eras and what compulsed their popularity, you will be disappointed.
This is still a great coffee table book, and I would love to have something like this in my living room to pull out from time to time and learn some new nerdy facts, but it was not a book that you could easily read in one sitting.
The story starts from the very beginning, way back to the nineteenth century and slowly (when I say slowly I mean snail slowly!) progresses towards the gaming of today, through the world wars and great discoveries.
I found it rather boring to read all at once, but as I said before this would be a great book to read from time to time and feel good about yourself for learning new things and fun facts.
Other than that, I felt like there were a lot of illustrations of people and not enough of games! Afterall, I wanted to see games and gaming consoles more than the portraits of all the important people in 19th and 20th centuries…
My rating:
⭐⭐ / 5
Would recommend this to everyone interested in engineering or computer science, but definitely not just video gamers. It was too technical for my liking.
With love,
Alex
WhimsyPages 